Kane and Jose seal Euro slot
SPURS CLINCH SIXTH
C PALACE 1 TOTTENHAM 1
JOSE MOURINHO used to view the Europa League with disdain.
When in charge at Chelsea he used to say it was not a competition for his team – the Champions League was where they belonged.
In fairness to the Special One, he has since said that when you are at Tottenham, you have to win whatever you can get your hands on.
So welcome to Thursday night football Jose – thanks to this point and sixth place earned in as drab an end-of-season contest as you could imagine.
Mourinho, for all his scorn, has also actually won the competition twice, when it was the UEFA Cup while at Porto, in 2003, and with Manchester United three years ago.
Harry Kane gave Spurs the lead with a typically ruthless strike last night. But as so often this season, Spurs lacked direction under Mourinho, lacked a killer instinct – and Jeffrey Schlupp’s equaliser for Palace was deserved. Roy Hodgson’s team could even have won this game.
It meant that Hodgson’s side avoided a club-record equalling eighth straight loss. The ex-England boss – who has seen Sean Dyche linked with his job – had said he is the man to lead Palace into next season.
Another loss would have really damaged the 72-year-old.
Spurs opened brightly as Giovani Lo Celso saw his shot well saved by Vicente Guaita and, eight minutes later, they took the lead.
Lo Celso won the ball off James McArthur and slipped a lovely little pass between two Palace defenders to Kane. The England striker took one touch to step wide of Joel Ward and cracked his low right-footed shot inside Guaita’s right hand post.
It was utterly lethal. It was Kane’s 18th league goal of the season, his seventh since the restart.
But to be fair to the under-pressure Hodgson, his team never stopped working. However, Palace escaped when, after Lucas Moura’s mazy run, Joel Ward cleared from under his own crossbar.
But Spurs never looked convincing and Palace capitalised. Scott Dann nodded down a corner, Jordan Ayew missed his kick – but there was Schlupp, below, to thrash the ball high into the net.
And Palace had late chances, too. Lloris was flapping as Ward’s cross came back off the post and Dann headed just a foot wide at the far post.
CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Guaita 6; Ward 7, Kouyate 7; Dann 7, Mitchell 7; Townsend 6, McCarthy 7, McArthur 6 (Riedewald 67, 6), Schlupp 8 (Milvovejic 85); Zaha 6, Ayew 7.
Goal: Schlupp 53.
TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris
6; Aurier 7, Alderweireld 6, Dier
6, Davies 7; Winks 6, Sissoko
6 (Skipp 80) ; Son 5 (Alli 80),
Lo Celso 6 (Bergwijn 60, 6),
Moura 6 (Sanchez 90); Kane 7.
Goal: Kane 13.